I am new at quilting and pretty much stick to squares and rectangles. I have a hard time lining up my blocks so that all the corners meet. Any tricks?

Thank you,
Alli

Clover makes a U shaped pin. Squish seams around until they are butting together then pin in with one prong on each side of seam.
Thess pins have made my blocks look perfect without ripping.
BS Quilter

I have trouble making my seams line up too. When they are off some, one has to resew ( another cuss word) the block, or ease the larger block into the other, matching the seams inside the block. It really helps to make sure your seams are consistent, mark the points where anything is supposed to meet before you sew it together, and make sure they match when you get through. Also measure your finished blocks before joining.
I am going to try both of the methods mentioned above and I am looking for those pins next trip to town.

I use the methods that sue mentions, nestling under the pressure foot. If you start the run with the pressed seam facing away from you it pushes the corners together. It worked well on my first quilt and I’m going to try to apply the method as I progress.

Am looking into the U shaped pins but haven’t seen them at any of the stores yet.

If things have really gone to hell in a hand cart, I use a method which I jokingly call "The great quilters art of fudging" :lol: Is helpful when sewing rows of blocks tog especially if you've got the blocks from a block swap or guild BOM.

First of all I match up the seams and do a couple of machine bast stitches to hold, open out and check match is correct. Then I sew the seam putting the bigger block on the underneath, the action of the feed dogs has the effect of slightly gathering the underneath fabric, If when I get to the next seam the larger block is on the top I just take the sewing out of the machine, turn it over and stitch in the opposit direction. Keep doing ths untill the entire row is sewn. Can get rid of up to a 1/4" per full size block, anything more and you gonna have a frill :lol:

Another way if things are really bad is to add a boarder to each block and then trim blocks to an exact size. A crazy boader is nice, where the blocks end up looking tilted.

I like that suggestion of crazy borders. Good thinking.

I really like the idea of the bigger block on the bottom. I too have cussed, ripped out, cussed some more, resewn, taken little tucks in the seam, and even more cussing. But I'll sure give this a try. I know that the top piece stretches a bit, but didn't even think of alternating the top or bottom. Thanx for the idea. Sara